So, welcome back! I know you just got a lot of update memos as I'm posting this on Oct 14. All earlier chapters have minor changes, nothing really earth-shattering. Honestly, the prologue only got an update to the disclaimer. I realized that I needed to add in "song lyrics" since I have someone sing sarcastically at some point. (Not this chapter, unfortunately.) Hope you enjoy!

Originally posted: 14 Oct 2021

Previous updates: 5 Dec 2021, 2 Feb 2022, 17 Mar 2022

Most recent update: 17 Apr 2022

Two hours later, Heather groaned. "How many dragons used me as a stage for Riverdance?" she croaked before she even opened her eyes.

"Well, that's a new take on it," Tony chortled. "I was gonna give you a Hollywood plate number if you'd asked about a truck or a lorry. Think you can sit up? We've got company, and they ain't leaving till after a long talk. Good news is, I don't think they're gonna break up with us. Even better, they brought your trunk. I stashed it in the room we woke up in this morning. By the way, that's your room, now."

She wrinkled her nose, staring in momentary confusion at the ceiling in Tony's living room. "This sounds familiar. … Sorry, Healer White, but destroying Laundro-mort takes precedence over just about everything." She ignored their snorts to meet Heindoffer's honey eyes. "He's gone forever now, yeah? No more surprises from Snake Face?"

"I make no promises about surprises," the curse breaker rasped. "We've got a lot of information to go over, and I don't know what you might consider a surprise. But yes, ding dong, the bastard wizard's dead."

"More welcome words will never be spoken," she moaned, her uncooperative arms not allowing her to change positions unaided.

With Tony's help, the teen sat up. He got her a cup of coffee, perfectly prepared, and plopped down next to her, elated when she naturally laid her head on his shoulder. "So," the engineer said enthusiastically, slipping his arm behind her back, "who wants to start?"

"I will," Heindoffer volunteered through his yawn, gulping down his own coffee. "If only so I don't have to try and figure out when to jump in if I doze off. What do you know about the Victori spell?"

"Honestly, only what Tony figured out earlier," Heather admitted. "I highly doubt my assumptions count, in this case."

"You might be surprised," Tony muttered. "Humor us, and tell us anyway."

She closed her eyes and snuggled closer. "I now own anything he considered his," she said softly. "He and his minions were or are, effectively, my slaves. None of them can use their magic without my permission; that includes not just the Death Eaters themselves, but their families too. Their Houses, properties, heirlooms, family magic, businesses, house elves, Gringotts accounts, everything – it's all mine."

"Glad I mentioned that we'd have other business when we go back next weekend," Tony grimaced. "But that's a bit more than I was expecting."

"Absolutely right," Heindoffer agreed, pushing a lock of chestnut hair off his forehead. "But there's more than that. That particular ritual we used drains the magic out of the items. Clarifies the Horcrux of the preparatory evil magic, remember? There were two soul fragments in living things – the snake and the… humanoid… thing."

"You mean the human-snake hybrid that is a crime against decency?" the teen drawled.

Philips snorted. "Yeah, that's more accurate," Heindoffer grinned. "They fought back; it's why we all passed out. Anyway, apparently, the Dark Mark had a similar feature. And I doubt you'll be heartbroken to learn that many 'upstanding citizens' in magical Britain, including those, like Lucius Malfoy, who had, ahem, taken the Mark and served the Dark Lord because they were under the Imperius Curse, and some who had never been suspected, all died at the exact same time."

"Shame." Everyone in the room silently agreed that Heather had somehow managed to inject more derision into that one word than should be humanly possible.

"With the Victori spell," the curse breaker went on, "you gained all that power. You fainted because your body wasn't prepared for the influx. Your magic – I mean, what you already had access to – is… back in charge, so to speak, and regulating the intake now.

"That brings us neatly to our next topic – your magic, or more accurately, your core," he continued. "Michelle's gonna have to take the lead on fixing this, because my reserves are pretty low. Fortunately, medics are trained for this as well. Parents have to do this sometimes, and it's usually easier to find a healer of some kind than a curse breaker. Someone bound your power. A lot of it. More than a parent would bind for their child's safety."

The soulmates stiffened, the younger becoming alert in a way that caffeine could only mimic. "How much is 'a lot'?" Tony demanded angrily. "And in what general direction should I aim?" At Philips' raised eyebrow, he shrugged. "I make weapons for a living. I'm always looking to test and improve the internal targeting systems. And, as we sometimes have to tell the Board of Directors, accidents and malfunctions happen. Even when we make them intentional and inevitable."

"I don't know who's just been volunteered for dodging practice," Heindoffer smirked. "It's not a magical signature I've come in contact with before. But 'a lot' is about 90% of what you should have been working with, that's how much was tied up. I mean, it may have been done with good intentions – the bindings did keep the leech from getting stronger, but–"

"Dumbledore," the teen snarled, taking everyone aback with the venom in her voice. "The Dursleys knew his name. He had something to do with me living there, has something riding on me staying with them. He's got the power and knowledge to do it, and the clout to get away with it."

"I have met the man," White growled. Her *frozen moss* green eyes flashed dangerously as she fidgeted with her dark blonde braid. "And now that you say the name, I do recognize the magical signature as his. That bastard has no shame! But we need to release your core. Doing that will make some of the healing you need a bit easier. And speaking of healing, what kind of venom is in your blood, and more importantly, why?"

"I'm surprised you didn't start with the obvious malnutrition," Philips commented over Tony's sub-vocal grumbling.

"I know how to counteract that," she retorted. "Venom, on the other hand…"

"Can any of you get hold of one of those Pensieve things?" Heather asked quietly, gaining everyone's attention.

"You know what a Pensieve is?" Heindoffer asked in surprise.

"I am a Gryffindor. Our mascot is a lion. I very much am a member of the House – in other words, a cat. Curiosity gets me every time," she shrugged with a self-deprecating grin, then sobered. "It'd be easier to show than tell. I'm willing to show you the lowlights of my early years, and everything since I got my first Hogwarts letter – well, everything important, anyway; no one wants or needs to see me writing essays – till… Auror Philips took me to MACUSA, excluding our words," she qualified, glancing at her soulmate. "Those are private."

"I can get one from the boss," Philips nodded, standing up. "Technically, I am still investigating how you entered the country. At this point, I'm not so much looking at your part in it, but how it happened. Price is worried about it happening again, and with someone not so… well-intentioned as yourself. Gimme, like, five minutes."

"Take ten," White advised. "I should have the bindings off by then." He waved her off and Disapparated.

At the healer's gesture, Heather laid her head on Tony's thigh. He pulled her hair free and started playing with it as the adult magicals approached. "So how do you all know each other?" he wondered.

White, as explained, cast the spell alone; Heindoffer, standing behind her in support, answered, "John and Michelle grew up together – Purebloods, both. I met them at Ilvermorny. Michelle went to Pukwudgie; John and I ended up in Thunderbird. I pulled a prank on the Transfiguration master, they covered for me, and the rest is history."

Heather's eyes lit up. "Prank?"

"I may have anonymously given him candy that changed his hair color and style based on his mood."

The girl's blinding grin split her face; Tony choked on his laughter. "Mood hair?" they chorused together.

"Ronald McDonald afro and neon green mohawk with purple polka dots included," Heindoffer boasted proudly. "Professor Larson, our potions professor, hated Salvo so much, she refused to brew the antidote since it wasn't a medical necessity. Took a week to wear off."

The teen jolted like she'd been electrically shocked as her magic flowed through her properly for the first time, more strongly than she was accustomed to or expecting. "Are any of you married?" she asked, her voice strained.

"Not to each other, if that's what you're asking," he laughed. "Michelle's like our sister. Her soulmate is Drew. Mine is Marci. And John's… is Brian." He eyed them critically. Neither of them blinked at the information. "Huh, you don't care. That's a nice change."

Heather shrugged offhandedly. "Lavender and Parvati. Dean and Seamus. Susan and Hannah. MacMillan and Boot. Corner and Proudfoot. Malfoy and his bookends. Davies and Greengrass. All but Proudfoot are in my year, and not a milligram of subtlety to be found in the lot," she replied. "I care about how people treat me and others, not what they do privately. As long as the ones involved are okay with it, and my roommates don't wake me up in the middle of the night before a big game or test, why should I mind?"

"I'm bi," Tony revealed. "Always preferred women, but I enjoyed my time with my boyfriends, too. Gave Rhodey a hell of a scare one day. He was fine with me getting some action, even if he was in the apartment, as long as he was expecting it, but this one particular day, I had somehow managed not to warn him, and he walked in at a very awkward moment. He, and whoever else may have been in the hallway at the time, watched for a minute, then he said, 'Goddamnit, Tony! Have I taught you nothing? Sock on the doorknob, dumbass!'" He turned thoughtful. "I wonder how Stephen is…"

"You know," White panted as she finished the spell, "the only person you can have sex with, effective yesterday, is Heather, your soulmate, right? There's no infidelity allowed in a soul bond. That includes threesomes and orgies, too."

"What about rape?" The words escaped Heather's lips before she'd even realized she'd thought them, let alone spoken them. She immediately clapped her hands over her mouth as she became the center of attention.

The three adults in the room were so outraged that Philips' return went temporarily unnoticed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Tony spat dangerously.

"Not you!" she cringed away from him as she suddenly sounded very young. "I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!" She hugged her knees, rocking back and forth.

Forcing his anger down yet again (he was slowly getting good at that, he thought), Tony ignored her efforts to push him away as he held her tight. "I'm not mad at you, little gem. I'm not gonna hurt you." The three adult magicals looked as overwhelmed as he felt. "Why don't you explain what you meant when you asked about rape?" he suggested, including the important word for Philips' sake. The auror's sharp inhale of breath proved it a wise move.

She shuddered in his arms. "It's not like I can stop a man from… getting inside me."

He crouched in front of her, pulled her feet off the couch so that she would be on the edge of her seat, and gently lifted her chin, making her meet his eyes. "Have you been raped?" he whispered. She opened her mouth several times, trying to answer, but couldn't make a sound. Finally, tears in her eyes, she nodded. "Gattina," he sighed, "how can I help? Who just volunteered for target practice?" She bit her lip nervously. He brushed some raven locks away from her face. "Is this included in what you were going to show us when Philips returned with – whatever the hell you asked for?" She nodded again and looked away.

"Do you know how to remove a memory?" the auror asked for procedural purposes.

"No, sir," she whispered. The phrase caught Tony's attention, but he didn't understand why until Philips pulled his wand. As soon as she saw the stick of wood, Heather found strength reserves they all doubted she knew about and scrambled away from all of them, leaving her soulmate on his backside. "Please, Professor, I don't want this–"

"Professor?" Philips repeated, aghast. He lowered his wand and shared a look with his friends.

"Give us a minute," Tony glared at them, cutting off whatever else they might have said by lifting the too-light teen and carrying her outside despite her whimpers. He held her tightly, determined not to let her accidentally hurt herself and uncaring that she continued to struggle against him. "Have I told you about Rhodey? We met at MIT – well, at a frat party…" His calm tone allowed her panic attack to wind down. He didn't bother with the actual story of how he met his best friend; instead, he recited the equation that had given life to his first bot and his original lines of code. The lengthy distraction served its purpose, regrounding the teen in the present. "Can you handle this, Heather?" he asked seriously. "Because, I understand if you can't. And I'll kick them out, flat on their asses. You come first, okay?"

She hesitated. "I can handle showing you all, but I don't think I can handle having sex tonight. If–"

"Tonight?!" he echoed, appalled. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Pump the brakes, there, Gemstone. We're not having sex till you turn 18 at the absolute earliest. I'm not into little girls. Not a pedophile. I'm utterly disgusted that this has happened to you. I don't care about the legal mumbo-jumbo bullshit that says you're somehow, magically, of-age. You're fourteen. Not freaking happening."

She stared at him, her eyes filled with a positive emotion he couldn't identify. "Is this what it feels like to have a responsible adult take care of you?"

"Ugh, responsible – are you trying to give me hives?" he snarked teasingly, and she grinned, that unidentified emotion intensifying. "Actual answer, yes."

She hugged him around the waist, and he returned the favor. "Thank you," she muttered into his chest. Pulling back, she put on a brave face. "You'll stay with me, right?"

"You ain't getting rid of me that easily, kid," he agreed with his own grin. "Let's do this."

Back inside, Philips, having decided that holding a wand on the traumatized girl was not conducive to keeping her cooperative, offered her his wand and talked her through removing the memories herself. After she dropped the long, thick silver strand into the fancily carved bowl, she held up the wand and vowed, as instructed, "I swear on my life and magic that these are my true memories, as I remember them, and that I have neither intentionally doctored the scenes to be shown, nor requested any alteration to them. So I swear, so mote it be." She flared white energy around herself, and the other magicals relaxed.

"So how are we supposed to see these memories?" Tony wondered. "Is it like a movie projector? Or a holo-disc? Or–"

"I think we'll all go in," Philips answered the unasked question as he activated select runes. "We're gonna need Heather to answer questions, and I doubt she'll stay calm enough to talk if you're not there. You just need to touch the liquid memories."

"It's a fully immersive movie," Heather explained, far more helpfully. "You can't interact with the 'actors', but you can walk around the 'set'." She hesitated, then whispered again, "Stay with me? Please?"

Knowing that whatever she wanted to show them was going to be bad, and that she needed the reassurance, he didn't remind her that she'd made the request right before they'd reentered the house. "I'm not going anywhere, little gem," he replied instead, holding out his hand. Smiling in relief, she latched on and plunged their joined hands into the Pensieve. Tony looked around in confusion. "Where are we?"